Introduction
There are two types of settings, macro and micro. The macro setting is the overall theme of where your adventures take place. Lets take a closer look at the macro setting and see what this can give you as a Dungeon Master.
The Macro Setting
Macro settings are sci-fi, fantasy, modern day or historical. The macro setting can tell you a lot of what your adventurers will come across in their everyday lives. In a fantasy setting your adventurers may see castles, caverns, or wizard towers. In a sci-fi setting your adventurers may see mega cities, space stations or space ships. Ina modern day setting they'll see cars, sky scrapers, and airplanes. They may go to exotic lands across vast oceans or fly through the galaxy visiting distant planets. They may fly on dragons, magic carpets, or hovercars. They could come across monstrous and mystical races, or some of your adventurers may be one of those races. There could be places of great power that your adventurers hear about. Adventures that take place in a fantasy setting will have things that may not be in a sci-fi setting or a modern day setting and vise versa. The macro setting sets the tone and feel of the environment that your adventures will take place in.
From the macro setting you can come up with the major elements of your adventuring space. The adventures may take place on a planet that has certain features on it. There may be several continents on it, or just one large one. There may be mountains or forests or deserts. There may be rivers and lakes scattered about. The continents may be broken up among several countries or city states. Those countries or city states may be further broken up into provinces or baronies. They can be further broken down into cities, towns and villages. These places will have some kind of government or faction that rules over them. They may be ruled by a king with several advisers. There may be a town council. Maybe there are guilds that run the show. All of these bits of information come from your macro setting.
Fleshing out the macro setting will give you the places that your adventures will take place. This could be a single planet, a solar system of planets or an entire galaxy. The larger the macro setting the more places you can take your players, but this also increases the amount of information that you'll eventually need to come up with. Sometimes it's ok to keep things small and compact, but it can be fun to figure out what's in that distant star system on the other side of the galaxy.
Example Macro Setting
Let's take a look at a fantasy macro setting to get a feel for the things that you could find in that type of setting.
The Continent of Brun
Brun is just one of the continents on the planet Mystara. There are several regions that make up Brun. There is the Arm of the Immortals, the Savage Coast, Hule, the Great Wastes, and the Serpent Peninsula. In these regions are several countries. Norwold, Wendar, Glantri, the Republic of Darokin, Alfheim, Rockhome, the Northern Reaches, Ylarium, Ethangar, the Five Shires, the Empire of Thyatis, and the Kingdom of Karameikos. There are several mountain ranges on the continent. There are large deserts, vast forests, great lakes and mighty rivers. There's even a massive plateau. There are some trade roads that connect these places, but most of the continent is unexplored wilderness just waiting for courageous adventurers to go out and explore.
Looking closer at one of these countries, The Kingdom of Karameikos, we find a land bordered by tall mountains to the north. The sea to the south. A large swamp fed by a great river. There are other great rivers that flow out of the mountains. There are hilly regions and heavily forested regions. There are grasslands near the coast. There are very few cities, towns, or villages. Most of them can be found along the major rivers or along the trade route that runs from a mountain pass in the north to the capital city on the coast. In the deep forest there are monsters like goblins and orcs. There are tribes of Elves, and a clan of Dwarfs. There are also some known dragons in the country.
The human population is made up of two different groups, the native Traladarian's and the foreign Thyatian nobles that have assumed rule over the country. The country is ruled by a king who has given over land to several Barons/Baroness'. This has caused some friction between the two groups. The different scattered towns and villages may have a mayor or a council of elders.
Conclusion
These are the things that make up a macro setting. The base of your setting. This is what you would see if you zoomed out and were looking at it from 30000 feet. This would be what you would pitch your friends to try and get them interested in playing in your game. From here you can dive down to a city or town and start to look at the micro setting. I'll go over the micro setting in the next post.